This story is from April 7, 2019

Ahmednagar Road a stark reminder of poor planning by civic authorities

Ahmednagar Road a stark reminder of poor planning by civic authorities
Sometimes it takes over half-an-hour to travel short distances along Ahmednagar Road.
PUNE: An eight-lane road getting squeezed into three lanes in the space of a few metres, slums spilling onto the carriageway, illegally parked vehicles and vendors perched on pavements — these are but some of the issues on Ahmednagar Road.
As per the 1987 development plan, the 7km-long Ahmednagar Road was proposed as a 60m-wide road through and through. However, one need not be a civil engineer to see the plan hasn’t been implemented.

Fifteen parcels of land remain to be acquired or be rid of encroachments by Pune Municipal Corporation. The civic authorities’s failure to do so till 2019, more than two decades since the DP was finalized, has caused a series of bottlenecks and chokepoints on the busy road.
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“The land parcels have not been acquired or are in dispute, and Pune Municipal Corporation has been unable to do anything about it. Whenever I raise questions about this, I receive standard replies,” said Qaneez Sukhrani of the Association of Nagar Road Citizens’ Forums.
Sukhrani further said the authorities’ thinking was shortsighted, without viable solutions. “When taxpaying citizens raise a hue and cry about inconveniences and delays, elected representatives get together to merely propose and approve extravagant projects such as flyovers, grade separators and the like, while the original plan of a wider road remains on hold,” she said.

“Sometimes it takes over half-an-hour to travel short distances along Ahmednagar Road. I do not understand how PMC allows encroachments and parking of vehicles on this busy road, which also happens to be a highway,” Shaheen Ghasia, a regular commuter, said. “A service road is also missing along this ‘highway’, which forces people to drive on the wrong side,” Ghasia added.
Police inspector Santosh Gore of the Yerawada traffic division said they frequently — and in vain — broached this subject with the civic authorities. “There is a scope to widen the road on either side of the Parnakuti-Gunjan Talkies stretch, which will reduce congestion. The footpath around Shadal Baba Chowk is too wide and can be trimmed, the median needs to be moved to the left to accommodate traffic properly,” Gore said.
He further said the PMC had approved the use of the BRTS corridor for private vehicles once Metro work begins on the road. “However, that has not happened. We are on the road through the day and see the problems first hand,” he said.
Aniruddha Pawaskar, the head of PMC’s road department, said, “We are trying to acquire the portions of land in question to solve traffic woes along the road. While land acquisition falls under the Land and Estates department, I have been pushing for the acquisition. We will hopefully see movement in this financial year.”
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